US fund managers are looking to launch private market funds in Europe as they see increasing demand in the region. Lata Vyas, alternative funds product head in Europe at financial services group Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH), told Markets Media that a lot of US managers are looking to launch sister products in Europe.

“Managers who have very large products in the US and are looking to replicate this in Europe,” she said. “They have identified Europe as a market that is of high value

Vyas said BBH has been advising them that the European market is very different from the US, with very different distribution platforms.

“That is the type of dialogue that we are having with managers and law firms,” she added. “If US managers come over, then Europe has a better chance of catching up in private markets.”

Nearly 80% of investors say the current geopolitical uncertainty has increased their interest in private market alternatives, including 78% of wealth advisors who do not currently have alternatives in their portfolio, according to preliminary results from BBH’s private market investor sentiment survey.

The firm collected data during the days before and shortly following the Trump administration’s “Liberation Day”, 2 April 2025. The survey covered more than 500 institutional investors and wealth advisors across five global markets – US, UK, Germany, Japan, and Switzerland.

Investors see private markets as a stable, non-correlated asset class in comparison to public markets, according to Vyas.

“I’ve worked in private markets for over 20 years, and I’ve always said the segment is one of the most non-correlated asset strategies and that has withstood the test of time,” she added. “I think that’s become even more pronounced.”

Another reason for increased investor demand is that the ability to enter private markets has become much  easier as managers have launched evergreen products. For example, in March this year, BlackRock launched the “first-of-its-kind” customizable public-private model portfolio within a unified managed account (UMA), in partnership with  GeoWealth and iCapital’s technology.

Lawrence Calcano, chairman and chief executive of iCapital, said in a statement: “This innovative solution enables advisors to easily incorporate alternative investments into their investment strategies for their clients in a simplified way, within a single account. We believe models will be an important way for advisors to allocate to private markets.”

Exchange-traded funds are another way for investors to enter private markets, although regulators may have issues with illiquid private assets being included in ETFs. One third, 34%, of global investors plan to invest in an ETF with exposure to private market investments and more than half, 57% want to learn more about these products, according to BBH’s survey.

Liquidity is key according to the survey. The majority, 59%, of respondents target a liquidity window of between four and six years, and 43% said they prioritize liquidity over target performance.

Consultancy McKinsey also found that investors want to allocate more capital, not less, to private markets over the coming year. The report, Global Private Markets Report 2025: Braced for shifting weather, published on 20 May, said: “What struck us most when writing this report, however, is the resilience shown by private market stakeholders as they navigate an industry in transition. Fundraisers are looking beyond closed-end channels to raise capital in new vehicles, such as evergreen funds.”

McKinsey added that higher liquidity products, LP demand-driven products, and permanent capital show the greatest popularity and promise, as they have added $7 trillion to $8 trillion to the overall global private capital assets under management in 2024.

Investors in private market funds have traditionally had to lock up their money for the life of a fund, which is usually between eight to 10 years, due to the underlying assets being illiquid but in return they have been rewarded with higher returns. Semi-liquid funds have been developed with a mix of public and private assets which allows  investors to redeem on a quarterly or bi-annual basis and reallocate their capital.

“At BBH we are in the middle of launches of semi-liquid funds in the double digits,” she added.

In the past, launches came from the more traditional managers who were looking to use their distribution but BBH is starting to see true specialist private asset managers launching products, and there is almost a 50/50 split, according to Vyas. The largest global asset managers are all aggressively setting their targets for growth in private markets across a variety of strategies. Wealth advisors, especially those who are new to private markets, are most interested in familiar real asset classes such as real estate and infrastructure.

BBH has created a platform which enables API-based, automated account opening with all the large platforms in Europe and created automation tools to support liquidity management. Vyas said: “I think we are hitting all of the right points.”

She explained that the firm is trying to drive standardization at an industry level to streamline private market processes and increase automation.

“Automation and standardization are the highest priorities for private markets to truly scale,” Vyas added. “I think that is going to be our challenge in the next year.”